Cassidy Kasten, Ian Carlsen and Ozma Kasten in “Sentinels.” Photos by Jeff Griecci

In “Sentinels,” the new short film from Matthew Luhrman, the unthinkable is transformed into something magical and restorative by the power of imagination. For Luhrman, who moved to Maine with his family just as the COVID pandemic swept the nation, the film’s production similarly looked to turn a bewildering tragedy into something healing, and beautiful.

He succeeded. The 15-minute “Sentinels” has already been accepted to several film festivals, with Luhrman’s film making its Maine debut at next week’s ever-prestigious Maine International Film Festival. More than that, “Sentinels” is a lovely experience, a bittersweet examination of how even the most painful and terrifying things can be weathered with the right childlike mix of imagination, hope and love.

In it, two young siblings (real life Maine sibs Ozma and Cassidy Kasten) construct an elaborate network of friends and cobbled-together costumes and fanciful machines in order to combat an encroaching but unseen evil approaching their Maine town. With their eager teams of young cohorts stationed all around the perimeter of their known world (the film was shot in Falmouth, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth, at Two Lights State Park), walkie-talkies relay fevered communications as each team conjures their own massive magical guardians to protect their border, even as one of the siblings’ faith in his big sister’s elaborate scheme wavers in the face of the actual, real-world horror they’re all trying to fend off.

It’s a formidable achievement, even more so when you consider the difficult circumstances of the film’s beginnings.

“We moved to Maine in 2019, six months before the pandemic,” said Luhrman, who had spent the previous two decades maintaining a successful show business editing career in both New York and Los Angeles. “My wife’s from Falmouth, and I’ve always had a love affair with Maine. We’d tried to move here years ago, but I wasn’t sure the post-production work I was doing would translate to long distance. But, by 2019, I was just so burnt out in New York that we made the move. Thankfully, it’s working out great.”

Still, Luhrman explains, his creative impulses weren’t being nurtured as much as his technical skills. “In New York and L.A., everyone is so busy and exhausted,” Luhrman said. “It’s a fast pace, and the setting to get work, but you find yourself not being creatively nurtured.”

So, after moving to Maine, Luhrman prepared to dive back into narrative filmmaking, something he hadn’t done for 20 years. “It was called ‘The Petting Zoo,’ and was sort of a weird, low-fi, high-concept sci-fi short,” the filmmaker said. “I bit off more than I could chew then – I’m fond of it, but I see it more as a student film at this point.”

Setting his dreams for a Maine-based directing career in motion saw Luhrman prepping a dark and edgy horror film, something in line with his storytelling instincts. And then the shutdown happened.

“I changed directions out of necessity,” Luhrman said of the film that would become “Sentinels.” “Thematically, the idea of using creativity and imagination and hope to save the day in the face of despair and grief was what I thought the world needed. It was certainly what I needed, especially as a parent worrying about the mental health of your kids. I switched to something I thought could feed us and even heal us.”

Landing in Maine as recently as he and his family just had could have proved an obstacle, but Luhrman is effusive about the Maine film community’s willingness and desire to welcome and assist each other – even filmmakers from away.

“I had already teamed up with (‘Sentinels’ producers and Maine film mainstays) Jeff Griecci and Christine Marshall in pre-production on my horror film,” said Luhrman. “It just wouldn’t be possible for the new guy who just landed here to do anything without them and other members of the Maine film scene encouraging and helping me. You have to find some collaborators to help you push the boulder up a mountain. Even so, we had some momentum going, and then COVID hit and we had to push pause. The logistics of the film we were making suddenly weren’t possible any more, so we had to scramble to come up with something else to make before that momentum got lost.”

Calla Burman and Zuri Wemple in “Sentinels.”

Dusting off a snatch of an old idea about two kids dreaming up superheroes, Luhrman dexterously fashioned it into a tale of childlike ingenuity and looming darkness, all with Greicci, Marshall and his Maine-collected crew switching gears along with him. “To be completely honest, the real prize has been finding a way into the Maine/Portland film scene,” Luhrman said.

Thinking on their feet the way only indie filmmakers know how to do, Luhrman and company got to work crafting a film that could encompass Luhrman’s themes, all while keeping his cast and crew as safe as possible. “We wanted to be COVID-friendly, so I came up with something modular, where separate outdoor shoots could be cobbled together. As an editor, I was confident that the parallel action would come together and feel cohesive.”

Luhrman was right, as “Sentinels” zips from one group of elaborately kitted-out children to another, each conjuring up their imagined magical guardians in the clouds of the open Maine sky. Ozma Kasten’s Tessa plays ringleader, barking orders that her eager companions seek to follow, the very real fear underlying this elaborate exercise in childlike heroism always lurking under the homemade costumes and plastic weaponry. (Luhrman proudly points out his own daughter, Cassia, as one of the costumed warriors, stationed excitedly at Two Lights.)

“It feels funny to say,” Luhrman said of the experience, “like, it’s a cliché for every indie filmmaker, but I wasn’t emotionally prepared to see this movie finished. Using vacation days, making space for it in your life – it’s like one day I said, ‘Just as a hobby, I think I’ll build a skyscraper.’”

Indeed, that’s just what Luhrman and his committed and talented coterie of Maine professionals and young actors have done. “Sentinels” not only emerged intact from its difficult birth and harried production, it’s also standing tall and proud on the film festival circuit, with its writer-director beaming at the construction. (The filmmaker especially points to production designers Mazie Biswell, Rebecca Myshrall and Mariah Bergeron for bringing the film’s homemade aesthetic to life.)

“It’s a mini-epic,” said Luhrman, already hard at work on his next, Maine-made film, a supernatural horror tale. (“Maine has really started shaping my writing,” laughed the director.) “Eight locations, 13 actors. We were left wondering, ‘Is this all going to come together?’ We tried to jam as much production value into every scene to put real variety into this little piece. In a way, I was the novice, so I was open to collaboration and ideas from everyone. It’s my mural, but it’s all of our brush strokes on this thing.”

“Sentinels” will screen on Thursday, July 13, and Saturday, July 15, at Waterville Opera House as part of the Maine Narrative Shorts program at this year’s Maine International Film Festival. Tickets are $14. To purchase and for more information about what else is playing, go to miff.org. You can learn more about the film on Instagram at mythtownmedia.